in a sense, the fiscal cliff is in a sense artificial, if he has the power to raise taxes next year for six months and then get down to serious negotiations after the congress-- >> and should republicans be willing to raise rates? say we lost the election, now what, we're just going to, we have to do it. >> well, i think if the president had put something that was like $1 of tax increases for every $4 that he was cutting, then there could be an argument for doing that, but he's not there. >> paul: all right, mary, thank you. still ahead, four state department officials were removed from their post after a r r r r r r r >> a scathing report this week blames systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies at the state department for inadequate security at the u.s. consulate in benghazi before the september 11th attack that killed ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. in testimony before congress this week, two top advisors to secretary of state hillary clinton vowed to do better and to improve security at u.s. diplomatic posts around the world. clinton herself was s

a fiscal crisis collapsed a so-called plan b after some conservatives balked at p provisions to let tax rates rise on those making over a million dollars. is there a plan c or over the fiscal cliff. dan henninger, editorial board member. mary anastasia o'grady and jason riley. where do we stand right now with the collapse of plan b? >> well, it's no fun being john boehner right now. he's still in a tight spot and the concern that the republicans have is that obama's panel strength and as we go over the cliff and tax rates go up. but i really think the buck stops with the president here. when you go into the negotiating sessions, paul and you're expected to make concessions, but you're expect today get something in return and boehner made a major concession on rights and the president is giving him nothing in return to take that to his caucus and say, this is what happened in the horse trading. it's all or nothing, obama seems determined to humiliate the opposition. >> paul: boehner made two concessions, first 800 billion on the table in revenue and don't raise rates when the president s

this town right now, the fiscal cliff. >> right. >> haven't you betrayed some of the voters who supported you in the election by changing your positions on who should get a tax increase and by including social security benefits now in this mix? and more broadly, there seems to be a deepening sense that negotiations aren't going very well right now. can you give us a candid update? are we likely to go over the cliff? >> well, first of all, there's no reason why we should. remember what i said during the campaign. i thought that it was important for us to reduce our deficit in a balanced and responsible way. i said it was important for us to make sure that millionaires and billionaires paid their fair share. i said that we were going to have to make some tough cuts, some tough decisions on the spending side, but what i wouldn't do was hurt vulnerable families only to pay for a tax cut for somebody like me. their task is going to be to sift through everything i did that is out there and even take a look at some bad ideas. the come up but a concrete set of recommendations in a month. i would

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